


The Making of TARTS

by mandykaysfic



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, SGA Secret Santa 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 19:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3180764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandykaysfic/pseuds/mandykaysfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anne Teldy gets her team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Making of TARTS

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gelbes_gilatier](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gelbes_gilatier/gifts).



"Then that's settled. Go ahead, Teldy."

"Thank you, Sir." Anne let loose with her broadest grin in response to Major Lorne's remark and congratulatory smile.

"Now go and inform your team."

After carefully closing the door to the major's office behind her, she checked the corridor in both directions. Finding it clear, she gave into the urge she'd kept under control since hearing the news and pumped the air as she exclaimed, "Yes!"

Her team, Teldy's Team, she tried out the moniker for real, first in her mind and then aloud, as she hurried back to her quarters to share the news. Outside the door, she paused and assumed a serious expression.

Three anxious faces greeted her entrance. 

"Well?" the three enquired as one.

Anne pursed her lips and wondered how long she could keep a straight face.

"It's Nichols, isn't it," wailed one of the women, unable to wait for Anne to speak. "I knew it. They'd rather have him than me. They want a global warming expert out there, seeing as how so many other planets will have stuffed up their environments and then reversed the damage in some miraculously cheap and easy way."

"Shut up, Porter." Dusty Mehra poked Alison in the ribs. "I've told you repeatedly. He'll never be assigned to a team permanently. He's a one trick pony and not a particularly useful trick at that."

"Not to mention the fact he's an arrogant, unconscionable, unreasonable, sadistic-"

"Don't you want to know what Major Lorne said?" Anne raised her voice, interrupting the third member of the party. 

Alicia Vega kept an oft-repeated litany of adjectives she saved for Dr Nichols, which became progressively uglier the longer she continued. It was no secret the two disliked each other intensely.

Dusty, sitting between Alison and Alicia, jabbed Alicia with her other elbow. Alicia flinched and reflexively returned the jab with an elbow of her own to Dusty's ribs as she shut up and turned to gaze expectantly at Anne. 

Major Lorne had put forward Dr Nichols' name, at Mr Woolsey's request, Lorne hastened to assure her; he was aware of the state of affairs between Nichols and Vega, even if Woolsey wasn't. Anne didn't feel obliged to tell Alison or Alicia that the man had even been up for consideration. Lorne had also recommended Lieutenant Rivers, citing his ATA-gene as the main reason for his inclusion. Thankfully, the gene therapy had been successful in Alison's case, she reminded the major, and so her team, as she already thought of them, wouldn't need Rivers, or anyone else. 

"He told me to choose the brightest and the best people for my team, notwithstanding my choice being limited to those not already permanently assigned to gate teams. Naturally, I told him that wouldn't be a problem. As far as I was concerned, the brightest and the best were still available.

"So without further ado, Captain Alicia Vega, Sergeant Dusty Mehra and Doctor Alison Porter, I hereby confirm you as members of Teldy's Atlantis Reconnaissance Team!"

Anne's formality lasted less than a minute as screams of pleasure and congratulatory group hugs were given all round. 

"This calls for a drink," announced Anne when things quieted somewhat. She wriggled free from the arm Dusty had draped over her shoulders, and detached Alicia's hand from her forearm. She headed over to her desk. "Here. I've been saving something for this very moment."

On the floor next to the wastepaper basket was a haphazard pile of books and papers. From behind it, she produced one bottle, while a second had been hidden in the bottom drawer of the desk.

"The glasses are on the second shelf," she said, not looking to see who went to get them as she searched through a box of pens, pencils and miscellanea for a cork screw. While not botanically the same as Earth cork, the stuff the wine merchants of P2R-346 used to seal their bottles looked the same and left the bottles with a most satisfactory 'pop' when a corkscrew was used. "Got it!" she announced triumphantly and waved it in the air as she rejoined the others where they stood around her coffee table.

She opened the first bottle and filled the glasses held out to her. 

"To us," she said as she took her glass from Alison and raised it. "Teldy's Atlantis Reconnaissance Team."

"To us," the others echoed, glasses chinking as they toasted one another. They laughed as they made sure to touch each glass before drinking. 

"You realize we'll be called the TARTs", said Alison, as she giggled over her glass, which Anne had already refilled for her. 

"TATs, TITs, TOTs, TUTs. I can think of a dozen nicknames." Alicia grinned. She took a breath, ready to reel off her suggestions, but paused to finish her drink and hold out her glass.

"Ooh, tats!" exclaimed Dusty, usurping Anne's job as hostess and pouring the nest round of drinks. "We should all get team tats."

"Tats of tarts!" Alison laughed even harder. "We could each have a different type of tart. I could get a strawberry tart, or a lemon tart. I love lemon tarts."

"I'm a savory kind of girl. Give me an egg and bacon tart any time. But I don't think that would look any good as a tattoo," pondered Anne.

"Tats of tarts on our tits," pronounced Alicia carefully after mangling her words for a third time. "That's a tongue twister. Where did you say you got this?" She held up one of the bottles, now empty. "We should go on a mission to get more. It could be our first mission."

"Our first mission. I can hardly believe it. Where do you think we'll go? Will Woolsey give us any first contact missions?" The words tumbled out of Alison's mouth, tattoos temporarily forgotten.

"The first place we need to go is the Mess and stake out a Team Table," said Dusty. 

Over the years, Team Tables had evolved as an unwritten rule. Sheppard's team had one of the best window tables, as did Lorne's. Stackhouse's team had chosen one against the back wall. Edison's Team took the table closest to the food.

"The table next to Stackhouse's has never been claimed," suggested Alicia.

"I was thinking the same thing," said Alison.

"Me three," put in Dusty succinctly.

"Then we're agreed," confirmed Anne. "Let's go on our first mission. Team Teldy to the Mess Hall!"

A round of applause greeted them as they entered. Open-mouthed, Team Teldy contemplated the plates holding a dozen small jam tarts, along with a large one sporting four lit candles already in place at the center of 'their' table. As they took their seats, Anne blew out the candles at the urging of her team, and secretly blamed the ATA-gene for the speed in which news got around Atlantis.

END


End file.
